John Culberson

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Chairman, the first coin ever minted in the Republic of Mexico contained the motto, ``Liberty in Law,'' something we understand so well in this country, that there can be no liberty without law. And fundamental to that is law enforcement, and this is a law enforcement issue. This is a no-brainer. It really illustrates how utterly out of touch the Democrat minority is with the Nation's concern with the lack of law enforcement at our border. My good friend from Arizona, who was the County Treasurer in Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, just pointed out to me that you experienced cost to your local taxpayers of $1.3 billion a year because of the cost of undocumented illegal aliens in Maricopa County. In my work on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, I've discovered that the Federal Government is only prosecuting about 15 percent of the illegal aliens entering the country in the Tucson sector. So 85 percent of those that they even catch are released, and they return voluntarily across the border so that they come right back. There are wildly different levels of enforcement up and down the border. The people of the United States, all of us, understand particularly in the State of Texas, which I am so proud to represent, the importance of a healthy relationship with Mexico and the importance of a guest worker program that allows people to come and go freely with our number two trading partner in the world. Canada is our number one trading partner, and Mexico is our number two trading partner. We need a healthy back-and-forth relationship with our friends in Mexico, and the only way to do that is to have the laws enforced equally and fairly as to everyone. There is no liberty without law enforcement. It is the first responsibility of our State officials to enforce the law. We know under the Constitution that the police powers are reserved to the States under the 10th Amendment because the Founders understood that the local sheriff, the Governor, and the State police were primarily responsible for protecting the lives and property of the people of their States and their communities. How many times does it happen every day that a bank robber is arrested or a money launderer is arrested by the State police or a county sheriff, and then because there are Federal charges involved the local prosecutor will hand the individual over to Federal prosecutors for prosecution? Entering the country illegally, crossing the border, is a Federal violation. Those individuals are often picked up by State or local police, who work every day arm in arm with Federal law enforcement authorities to protect the lives and property of the people of America. This is a no-brainer. Local and State law enforcement authorities do it every day. Enforcing the law is fundamental to who we are as a Nation, because as the Republic of Mexico said on the first coin they ever minted: liberty in law. It's fundamental to who we are as Americans. If we are going to restore the healthy relationship that we've always enjoyed with the people of Mexico, it begins with secure borders, with the uniform--equal--enforcement of the law and by ensuring that the people who come here do so legally and properly so that we know who you are, how long you're going to stay, when you're going home, and that you're not accessing government benefits and costing the people of Maricopa County or the people of the United States money that we simply cannot afford. As generous as we are, we are out of money. This Nation is living on borrowed income that our kids and grandchildren will have to pay off. It's unacceptable. This new constitutional conservative majority in the House is determined to see the budget balanced, our laws enforced, our borders secured, and this Nation of laws--the greatest democracy ever created in the history of the world--returned to the constitutional set of principles on which it was founded. That begins with liberty in law, which this amendment so wisely attempts to restore. So I strongly support the amendment, and I urge its adoption. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CULBERSON. I move to strike the last word.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, America has no better friend on the face of the Earth than the people of Israel. Israel is the only nation on Earth that can say they've stood by America 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of their existence. And it's so important today that America, that our President, that this Congress, stand behind the people of Israel at this moment of supreme peril. When the Iranians are building a nuclear weapon as fast as they can, that the Iranians have said they're going to use it, America must stand by Israel. There should be no doubt in the mind of every Israeli, of every friend of Israel around the world that America will stand behind her best friend 100 percent the time, just as they have stood beside us 100 percent of the time. We will be there for Israel to defend her safety, her security, and her prosperity against any enemy, any time, anywhere.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Sure. Bill Young's going to do that. Bill Young's going to take care of it.

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure the gentleman from Maryland. And as we all recall, the Military Construction and VA Appropriations bill passed the House almost unanimously because all of us in this Congress are arm in arm in support of our veterans, in support of our military to ensure that they get the very best medical care possible, that we're providing every benefit that they have earned by their service to the Nation. And the only thing this bill will do is remove the automatic blind increase in the starting point for our spending. And we in the Appropriations Subcommittee, in the full sunlight of day on C-SPAN and public hearings, will go through and build in that increase that has actually occurred in medical inflation and regular inflation to ensure that we have compensated our veterans for that increase that has already occurred. But we'll do it in a public hearing; we'll do it in the full light of day. We'll do it so the taxpayers can see what we're doing. The game is rigged today against American taxpayers; and House conservatives, constitutional conservatives are following core principle. We're honoring the Constitution. We're looking for ways to restore the 10th Amendment and individual liberty, shrinking the government, getting control back in the hands of individual Americans and State and local governments. And then when it comes to the budget, we're implementing commonsense reforms that every American understands. We don't get an automatic increase in pay. If you're working for a company, you've got to earn it every year. We on the Appropriations Committee are going to go through and analyze every one of these accounts and make sure that we have built in, but in an open public forum, any increase as a result of the increase in medical inflation or baseline inflation. We will, on the subcommittee, I assure you, Mr. Van Hollen, make sure that our veterans are fully compensated, as all of us take great pride in their service. And, truly, you see more unanimity on the Veterans' and Military Construction Appropriations bill than almost any other bill that we pass because we take such great pride in them. So I urge my colleagues to please remove that argument from your repertoire, and let's focus on what's really going on here. The game is rigged today against taxpayers, and House Republicans are rigging the game today in favor of taxpayers in sunlight and transparency.

Mr. CULBERSON. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, my hero, Thomas Jefferson, always said that if you apply core principle to any problem, no matter how difficult, the knot will always untie itself. It was true then, and it's true today. If we would apply the core principles of the Constitution to the problems we face as a government, the knot will untie itself. And here just applying commonsense principles to our fiscal problems, the knot will untie itself. This is a remarkably simple and remarkably effective reform. We will no longer assume inflation into the beginning of our spending bills on the Appropriations Committee. Now, unfortunately, we only control on the Appropriations Committee about 39 cents out of every dollar of spending the Federal Government does. But that 39 percent that we do control will no longer increase automatically year to year. These procedural institutional reforms that House conservatives are enacting into law will make a dramatic difference in changing the direction of our Nation from insolvency and bankruptcy to getting back on a path to a balanced budget. I'm very proud to help our colleagues, my chairman, Paul Ryan, Mr. Woodall, and Mr. Gohmert of Texas in enacting this fundamental, commonsense reform to put America back on track to a balanced budget. And Americans should take heart that constitutional conservatives in the House are doing the right thing for the right reasons for the country and redesigning the way we spend money in favor of taxpayers and not in favor of Washington bureaucrats.

Mr. CULBERSON. Just for a friendly conversation. Truly, there's nothing misleading. We're doing this in the light of day. What we're, through this reform, going to do, Mr. Van Hollen, is have these hearings in public, in front of C-SPAN and the world, and talk about what actually has been the level of inflation this year, what actually do we need to do to increase funding this year for the veterans, for medical inflation, for regular inflation. Bill Young, the chairman of the Defense Subcommittee and a great leader from Florida who works in a bipartisan way with Norm Dicks, your leader on the Appropriations Committee, they're going to build in, they're going to analyze what inflation's been. The difference here, truly, all we're doing is doing it in the light of day. We're removing the automatic increase. That's all. I want the pilot with his hand on the steering wheel of the airplane.

Mr. CULBERSON. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CULBERSON. I chair the Veterans Administration and Military Construction Subcommittee in Appropriations, and I assure you we all work arm in arm together. My friend, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, and I will make sure veterans are taken care of. We will still be able to with this reform, but in the light of day look at inflation, medical inflation, which is generally higher than regular inflation, we will build that in, I promise you, as we go through our hearing schedule. But we will do it in open public hearings. It won't be built in automatically. That's all this does is remove the automatic increase and lets the people's elected Representatives do it in the sunlight of day in an open hearing. And I assure you that veterans will be taken care of.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. We're sending this bill back to conference because we share Speaker John Boehner's core governing principle to do the right thing for the right reasons for the country. And the right thing to do here is to make sure nobody's payroll taxes go up for at least a year. The House bill does that. If you want your payroll taxes to go up in 2 months, then you would support the Senate bill. We are sending this bill back to conference because the Senate bill, unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not require people applying for unemployment to either get a GED or show that they're working their way towards a degree. The Senate bill doesn't do those things. So we're obviously sending this bill back to conference. The House bill also gives States the flexibility to require unemployment beneficiaries to submit to drug testing, which is something common sense that everybody in the country can understand. The Speaker also included in the House bill the ability for businesses to expense 100 percent of the money they invest in new investments and that, obviously, is going to create jobs immediately. The Senate took that language out. This is just not complicated. If you want your payroll taxes to stay the same for 12 months, then you would support the House bill. If you want your payroll tax to go up in 2 months, then you'd support the Senate bill. This is not a complicated debate. This is very straightforward. We in the House want to make sure that nobody's tax goes up for at least 12 months so people can plan, so businesses can predict, so they can expense money that they can invest so that they can create jobs. We also want to make sure that businesses in America can continue to create jobs.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I first of all want to thank the Congressman from Virginia. Bob Goodlatte has been a relentless and tireless advocate for balancing the budget of the United States of America with a constitutional amendment. And we are here tonight debating it because of his perseverance. I want to thank Speaker Boehner. I want to thank the people of America for electing a constitutional majority to the House--elections make a huge difference. We must pass this amendment to the Constitution tonight. The Senate must take a vote on it. And the people of America should hold every Member of Congress accountable for their vote because this is a defining vote on a defining evening for the United States Congress. How much more prosperous would America be today if the Senate had passed this amendment 16 years ago? How much stronger would America be today? The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, as has been pointed out earlier, that America's greatest strategic threat is our national debt. What better evidence of that is there than that the people of Europe tonight are facing panic selling of European Union debt. Greece, Italy, and Portugal are all on the brink. We cannot let America continue down this path. We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to ensure that the Nation's books are balanced just as every American must do, just as 49 out of 50 States must do, just as every business in America must do. This is just fundamental common sense. No amount of confusion or distraction on the part of the opponents can divert the country's attention from the simple, commonsense fact that an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget requires America to live within its means, to spend no more than is brought in by revenue. My hero, Thomas Jefferson, said, and his words ring so true today in light of the problems we face, that to preserve our independence as Americans, we must not let our rulers load us down with perpetual debt. We must make our choice, America, between economy and liberty and perfusion and servitude. I want to thank Congressman Goodlatte for his leadership and perseverance on this vitally important issue. And I'm looking forward to the day, in 15 to 16 years from today, when this amendment passes the Congress, when it passes the States overwhelmingly, so that my daughter and her children will inherit an America that's more prosperous and more secure because of Bob Goodlatte and John Boehner's leadership in bringing this to the floor tonight so that we will, as a Nation, continue to live within our means.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. CULBERSON. If there is any adverse impact or any disproportionate negative impact, the act is not going to affect that, no matter how small.

Mr. CULBERSON. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CULBERSON. Any negative.

Mr. CULBERSON. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Waxman, there is no definition of ``adverse'' in the act. That's in this amendment. That's one of the concerns. If there's any adverse impact, then the act doesn't go into effect, nor is there any definition of ``disproportionately.'' Those terms are not defined. Would you agree there is no definition?

Mr. CULBERSON. Madam Chairman, the air contains mercury. The environment contains mercury from natural sources. The Communist Chinese, of course, are the world's largest polluter, and the plume of pollution from Communist China stretches all the way across the Pacific Ocean and covers up the Western and Central part of the United States. This map, which I hope you can see there, Madam Chairman, shows the Western and Central U.S. covered by a plume of red. These are mercury deposits coming from Communist China. The United States, through the Clean Air Act and with the efforts of industry and individuals across the Nation, has dramatically reduced pollution levels in the air and in the water. We are all committed to making sure that our kids are drinking clean water and breathing clean air. This amendment offered by the gentleman from Vermont is a simple statement that we find we're exposed to mercury. Congress might as well also issue a finding that we're exposed to carbon dioxide. I'm exposed to carbon dioxide right here. They're trying to make that a pollutant. What the Obama Democrats have done to crush jobs in the cement industry is an illustration of what Obama Democrats have done in their attempt to crush job creation all over the United States. In this EPA regulation on the cement industry, the Obama Democrats have set an impossibly high standard far beyond what even the European Union seeks. What the Obama Democrats attempt to impose on the cement industry is like asking them to win the decathlon, where you have to get a gold medal in every event. They've set, for example, this rule that 98 percent of all mercury has to be eliminated. The technology doesn't exist for that, yet the industry has to comply with the Obama Democrat rule by next September, wiping out much of the cement industry in the United States at a time when the construction industry in America is already in a state of depression. It is evident from the record that the cement industry today is producing at a rate equivalent to 1962, yet the Obama Democrats seek to crush it further and eliminate more job creation in an absolutely vital sector of American industry, which will simply have the effect, as they have already done in so many other industries, of driving the work offshore--driving more cement production to Communist China, where they have no pollution controls. For example, in the auto industry, the Obama Democrats have set automobile mileage standards so impossibly high that no automobile in America today can meet it other than the Prius. So the auto industry is going to be crushed. In the oil industry, they've set impossibly high standards for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, driving offshore drilling to Brazil and other countries. All those big rigs are gone. They won't come back, but we're trying to open up drilling in the gulf. In sector after sector after sector, Obama Democrats are crushing the American economy and crushing American business owners with impossible regulations that cannot be met. This is common sense. Constitutional conservatives in the House are trying to get this economy back on track and to grow jobs by eliminating regulation, by cutting taxes, and by cutting spending. This legislation today is a straightforward, simple attempt to postpone the damage. All we can do by controlling the House is to stop the damage inflicted by Obama Democrats on the American economy. That's what we can do with this legislation. Give us 5 years more to implement it until we get reinforcements and have a constitutionally conservative Senate and a constitutional conservative in the White House, which is when we can really grow this economy and cut taxes and cut spending and can put the Federal Government back in the box designed by the Founders. Get out of my pocket. Get out of my way. Get off my back. Unleash American entrepreneurship, and you'll really see the American economy grow if you'd just leave us alone. Let Texans run Texas. Let Kentuckians run Kentucky. Let us manage our own businesses, our own families, our own affairs--to manage and invest and save or spend our own money in the way we wish. You'll see American industry protect the environment, grow jobs, drill here and drill now for oil and gas safely and cleanly in the Gulf of Mexico and across the United States. You'll see the cement industry and the construction industry come back if we just stop crushing them with impossible regulations that cannot be met by any available technology anywhere on Earth. For all of those reasons, I ask the Members of the House to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2017) making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012, and for other purposes, with Senate amendments thereto, and concur in the Senate amendments.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Monday next.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, the duty we perform today to cut and cap America's spending, to put us on track to a balanced budget, and to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution are vitally important but pale in comparison to the sacrifices and duties of our Armed Forces, our men and women in uniform. It is with profound sadness today that I join with the family and friends and the neighbors of United States Army First Lieutenant Dimitri del Castillo in mourning his loss. On June 25, 2011, he was killed while fighting in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2004, it was my privilege to nominate Dimitri for an appointment as a cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon his graduation, he was commissioned in the Infantry, where he sought out the Army's toughest challenges immediately. He graduated from the demanding Airborne and Ranger courses and later passed a series of rigorous skill and endurance tests to earn the Army's coveted Expert Infantryman Badge. Dimitri deployed with his unit to Afghanistan in April of 2011, and while conducting combat operations he was tragically killed when his unit came under fire by enemy forces. For his heroic actions that day, Dimitri was awarded posthumously the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Though we mourn his loss, we are immensely proud of Dimitri's accomplishments and we are immensely proud of the men and women who fight for us every day to make it possible to savour the freedom left to us by our founders. May the Lord bless and keep Dimitri's soul, and may God help his family find comfort in the nobility and valor of his deeds.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Madam Speaker, I think it's important for everyone to know the reason the House is considering this bill today is to put up another guardrail to show what the House cannot do. It's important in any compromise to understand what can and cannot be done. The new constitutional conservative majority in the House will not pass the Reid bill because of its devastating cuts to our U.S. military. The House is going to find a way to compromise with the Senate, but it is not going to include massive cuts to the military. As we've established, it's not going to include tax increases. It looks like it's going to include some select committee that's going to make recommendations to the Congress. We're going to find a way to make sure that American companies do not hit the brick wall of running out of the ability to borrow. But this is one of the most important debates, one of the most important votes we'll have in our brief time here in Congress is to make sure that we're protecting our kids and grandchildren from a crushing unaffordable level of debt. So we're working hard to find what the limits are of what the House and the Senate will do. We've got to have this vote today to show what the House will not do. And we're not going to cut the military, as the Reid bill would.

Mr. CULBERSON

Mr. CULBERSON. Madam Speaker, I think it is very revealing in the debate today that the American people can see that the opposition to the proposal before the House is that we are attempting to even suggest that there be a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, not any specific amendment. We want, as a constitutional conservative majority, to see a vote in the House and the Senate on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, something I've coauthored since 2001. Yet the majority is strenuously objecting to that. The minority objects to our effort to control the debt and the deficit without raising taxes. They object to strong spending caps in the future, which by the way, exempts anyone over the age of 55 and under Medicare, Medicaid. They're exempt under the Paul Ryan budget; they're exempt on the proposal that Speaker Boehner has brought to us today. The Speaker has attempted to find the largest possible cuts with the strongest possible enforceable budget caps that could pass a Democrat Senate in order to get it on the desk of the President before the August 3 deadline. The Speaker and this new constitutional conservative majority are doing everything in our power to avoid a default while honoring the trust that the Nation put in us in this landslide election which just occurred in November. The Nation spoke decisively in electing this new majority to the House. We were sent here to control spending, to control the size of the government, to get the government out of our lives, out of our pocket, and back within the bounds of the Constitution as designed by the Founders. And we've attempted to do that. I applaud Speaker Boehner for working so diligently to find the largest possible cut that could possibly pass a temporarily liberal- controlled Senate in the very short span of time that we've got here. We would all like to get more. But if you can get 60, 70 percent of where you need to go to get the Nation back on track to a balanced budget and avoid the brick wall that lies ahead of us on August 3, we need to do so to avoid a default. I applaud the Speaker for bringing this package to the floor and urge all the Members to support it.